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6th Floor Blog

About 6th Floor Blog

6th Floor Blog is written in a conversational style. It focuses on the life and adventures of six roommates living in an apartment together in Manhattan. For our first post and a explanation for the colors, go here.

“You’re crazy. If you find out everything about a girl you’re going to date, what do you talk about at the date?” Sara asks.

“Oh, I don’t tell her that I Googled her. She might think I’m creepy.” Scott says.

“It’s not a bad plan. It helps you steer the conversation in a proper fashion. Like if you Googled this guy and found out he’s a Yankees fan, you wouldn’t bring up baseball or the World Series because your Mets sucked this year.” Frank explains.

“Actually, that does make a lot of sense…and you just wait until next year with the Mets.” Sara says.

It’s 12:30 on Friday night/Saturday morning when the apartment door opens and Frank comes in quietly, probably expecting most of his roommates to be asleep.

Such is not the case.

“Frankie! How’d it go? You do her?”

“Crude Scott. Did you like her? It’s late, you must’ve had a good time. You going to date her again?”

“Where’d you take her to eat?”

“What’s her name? Where’d you meet her? What’s she like? Blonde?”

“Can’t a guy unwind from his date without the third degree? I’m surprised Sara’s not here grilling me as well.”

“She was going to, but…” Ann gestures to the couch where Sara is fast asleep.

“Ahh. How’d you find out I had a date anyway? I didn’t tell anyone.”

“You turned down drinking.”

“And then I noticed you’d shaved and left your razor out. You never shave Friday evening.”

“I smelled your cologne when I came home. I didn’t think you’d put that on to go play poker or pick up takeout.”

“What is this? CSI: 6th Floor?”

“You going to answer our questions, or leave us hanging here?”

“If you’re all so deductive, maybe you should already be able to figure it out!”

“Come on!” Ann whines. “Gossip!”

“Is it gossip if it’s about myself?”

“Irrelevant. Answer the questions.”

“Her name’s Rose. This is actually our second date, I must’ve slipped by you on the first.” Frank sticks out his tongue. “We went to an Italian place in the Village, I had a four cheese lasagna, she had Chicken Francese.

No, she’s a Brunette.”

“That’s all you get, I’m going to do some work now.”

Frank pushes through the rest of them grouped around them and heads to his room.

“There’s a new idea. Are there any outdoor parties that we know of? Barbecues?”

“I know of nothing.”

“All the more reason to come here and celebrate.”

“Do we do anything but drink?”

“Yeah, just the other day. Didn’t we play Pictionary?”

“Yeah, but we played with drinking rules. We did a shot of Jack every time we won an all play.”

“Oh right. I’d forgotten. I don’t even remember who won.”

“We won!”

“Oh yeah! How could I forget?!” Frank and Scott high-five.

“I don’t know if I’d call it winning. You slept on the floor next to the table for the next 14 hours in a puddle of water.”

“Everyone loves a waterbed though.”

“Back to the third, I don’t think I want to drink here. I am getting real tired of this place.”

Clarence, with a wink in passing: “You sure spend a lot of your free time here for being so sick of it.”

“We could always go watch the fireworks.”

“Nah. But we’re talking about the night before Tab, aren’t you listening?”

“No. Not really. I’ve started tuning you out when you talk about beer. We always either end up here, or drinking at home. Same story.”

“Fine, you find us someone grilling some burgers and dogs Wednesday, and I’ll find us somewhere new and different to drink Tuesday night.”

“Fine, now can we at least talk about something a little more interesting?”

Scott, to Billy. “Hey Billy, find us somewhere new to drink Tuesday, k?”

“Ha, I should’ve seen that coming. I’ve got your back Scott, don’t worry.”

“Didn’t you have a date last night Tabitha? Wasn’t it your third date? How is that going? Sleep with him yet? When do we get to meet this guy?”

“Date? What date? I don’t date!”

“Sure, that’s why you were running around frantically trying to find those silver hoop earrings?”

“You know I always like to know where my stuff is!”

“Sure, I know. Except that after you tried them on, you tried on six other pairs of earrings before putting them back on and leaving the apartment.”

“Oh fine. Yes, I had a date. It was nice, we went to this wonderful bistro downtown. I’m seeing him again soon, and no I’m not planning on bringing him around yet. Oh, and it’s none of your business if I’ve slept with him!”

“That’s a yes.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Definitely a yes.”

“None of your business!” Tabitha says, blushing.

“Don’t worry, if you have a fourth date I’m sure you were good.”

Clarence: “Tabitha had a hot date? Cute guy? You’ll have to fill me in later. Another round folks?”

After the game Friday night me and Frank headed over to Union Square to meet the rest of the gang. As we get off the train I call them and it turns out they’ve also just arrived, so we all go to Max Brenner together. We’re about to head in when we’re stopped by someone calling most of our names. It’s Amy and Sue, two girls who used to live on our floor before moving in with their respective boyfriends. Sue is actually getting married in a couple of months.

Sue: “Hey guys! It’s funny running into you, especially today! Me and Amy just decided to meet up and go out and have some drinks tonight. You should come with us, it’ll be just like old times!”

“I’m in, are you guys okay with skipping chocolate tonight?”

“It’s a tough choice, but I guess I can skip chocolate for these two…as long as one of them buys me a chocolate Martini where ever we’re going.”

Amy: “Certainly! I’ll do it, Sue should be saving for her wedding!”

“Did you pick a date yet?”

Sue: “Not quite yet, we’re decided between two dates in the spring of ’08. So what are guys doing out besides getting chocolate?”

“We were grabbing dinner at the Corner Bistro, and we just met up with Sara and Frank returning from the game.”

Amy: “The Met game? How’d they do?”

“Mets won 3-2, Pettite thought Endy was bunting, instead he swung and hit a two run home run. One more win and Frank loses our bet.”

Amy: “Oooh, a bet. That sounds like fun. You guys going to any more of the games?”

“Nope, I’ll have to wait until they come to Yankee Stadium to see them beat the Mets I guess.”

We arrived at the bar Amy and Sue were headed to, and found ourselves a semi-empty corner to hang out in. As is typical when we go out to bars, we ended up forming a circle so that we could all talk to each other.

“You know we can never pass up those McSorley’s. It’s just a shame that the real bar is always so jam packed.”

“We had a couple of beers ourself at Shea. It’s such a rip off but I can’t help myself.”

“Just trying to drown your sorrows huh Frank?”

“Absolutely.”

Sue: “So what’s new with everyone? What have you guys been up to? Any dates recently?”

“I was on a date just last night actually. It was kind of a bore.”

“You never did mention how that went. I noticed you didn’t come back with him and you certainly weren’t home very late.”

“Well you know he was a guy from work. He really seemed to not want to talk about anything except work. We talked office politics, coding solutions…it was just like lunch in the cafeteria.”

“What a snooze.”

“Exactly, I didn’t even have to make up an excuse to part ways after dinner, he wanted to go home because we had work the next morning.”

“As I recall, you’re asleep early most nights too.”

“Yeah yeah, we don’t all have the luxury of your schedule.”

Amy: “Still doing well with the Poker I take it?”

“It pays the bills, and it certainly beats rising with the sun and trudging off to work.”

Sue “I imagine it would. So Tabitha, you think you did well on your finals?”

“I think so yeah, I wish I didn’t have to wait so long to find out my grades.”

“Tab, are you chewing on the appetizers menu?”

Tabitha pulls the wad of paper out of her mouth and opens it up. “Looks like it, you want more food?”

“I’m not into paper as a snack actually, I’ll pass.”

Sue “So how about the rest of you? Anything to write home about?”

“I drove the M train this week!”

“Yes, that’s all very exciting. You still travel a lot for work Amy?”

Amy: “Not quite as much, but still some. I have more seniority now that one of the older guys quit. Means I get to pick and choose more about which trips to take. Last week I was actually in Vegas; best trip for work ever.”

“I bet. You should have told me, I would’ve flown with you. I rarely pass up an excuse to go to Vegas, it’s like my Mecca.”

“Yeah, he actually makes sure every time he plays poker on-line he faces towards Las Vegas.”

Amy: “Ha! Well maybe next time I go out there I’ll give you a call. I assume you feel much the same about other gambling places? Atlantic City? Reno?”

“Yup, although AC is close enough that I really don’t need an excuse to go there.”

We continued chatting and drinking and having a grand time late into the night, but none of us really remember much after that. Tabitha did develop a small cut on her lip, and Frank’s arm felt sore the next day, and it certainly wasn’t from cheering for the Yankees.

The Mets slaughtered the Yankees on Saturday, having starting pitcher Darrel Rasner leave with a broken finger in the first inning killed them. The Yankees managed to eke out the third game so Frank will not be my slave, but he does owe me a couple of drinks. I’m thinking of ordering every drink with top shelf liquor.

It’s Sunday night and we’re all standing around in the kitchen. When we stand around and chat, we often do it in the kitchen; I think the presence of snacks and a counter to lean on keep the conversation flowing. We all recently arrived home after being out, some of us visiting our mothers, the others just running errands. A belated Happy Mother’s Day to all the mother’s out there. As the early birds start to think about getting to bed, conversation naturally drifts to the upcoming week, and any interesting plans we may have.

“I’ve got some finals this week, but I was thinking it’d benice to go out to dinner Friday. How does the Corner Bistro sound?”

“Well me and Sara will be at Shea Stadium for the subway series game on Friday otherwise I’d go. Maybe if you’re all still out when we get back.”

“I’m always in for the Bistro. Plus they have McSorley’s on tap, that’s always a plus.”

“Amen to that!”

“Well I’ll have to check my schedule, but that sounds good to me too. Maybe we can L it over to Union Square and have dessert at Max Brenner‘s afterwards?”

“Sure, nothing washes out the bad taste of finals like yummy chocolatey goodness.”

“That’s the place with all the weird glasses and mugs right?”

“That’s the one. We might want to goto the 2nd avenue one though, it’s usually less crowded.”

“So anyone doing anything exciting during the actual week?”

“I’ve actually got a date Thursday night. I don’t know if it’ll be exciting or not though.”

“Oooo…Sara’s got a date! With who? Where are you going? You bringing him back here?”

“Just some guy from work. Maybe I’ll bring him back here if it’s going badly, meeting you is always a good way to scare off dates.”

“Ouch, that hurts me!” Scott says, grabbing at his heart in jest.

“Going anywhere good?”

“We’re just going to dinner. I told him he could pick the place. I’ll let you know where we end up.”

“A friend of mine is coming to the city for the day on Wednesday. I told her I’d show her around, and she mentioned she’d like to goto a museum or something. She’s only going to be here for something like 8 hours though, so I’ll have to figure out something fun for us to do. We’ll probably get dinner somewhere near Penn Station before she gets on a train if any of you wanted to join us.”

“Hmm, she hot?”

“She’s pretty good looking yes, but she has a boyfriend. You’re still welcome to join us though.”

“Naah.”

“It’s nothing real exciting, but I’m going to be working the M train this week. I don’t usually work that route, it’ll be a nice change of pace.”

“I’m not sure I’ve ever been on the M train actually.”

“You know I always welcome visitors on my trains.”

“You mean besides the millions of New Yorkers who visit every day? Yeah I know. I’ve got too much studying to do for excursions to Queens though. So much studying in fact, that I need to goto bed and get an early start on that. Goodnight everyone.”